The newly established centre for railway technology must gather competencies within the University and at the same time coordinate with the outside world within all aspects of railway services. The Danish Rail Sector Association is co-financing the new initiative.
On Wednesday, 3 February the official start whistle sounded for RailTech DTU—the University's hub for all fields of research related to train services. And it is actually quite a lot, as eight departments are involved in the collaboration intended to coordinate interdepartmental research and development and, at the same time, serve as the link to external authorities and companies.
Train services is a key focus area at a time when more and more people and more and more goods are transported by rail in Denmark," explains Henrik Sylvan, Head of Centre, RailTech DTU:
“There are lots of challenges to be addressed to improve rail services. The rail sector is desperately trying to recruit candidates, and they would like to help to ensure that the courses offered by the University are relevant, and that our engineers have the right competencies,” he says shortly after the opening reception.
"The rail sector is desperately trying to recruit candidates."
Henrik Sylvan, Head of Centre, DTU RailTech
“Many small businesses don't have a development department as such, but they still manage to come up with solutions that are quite ground-breaking.
Moving a 40-foot container on to a freight train, for example, involves a disproportionate amount of labour. To solve this challenge, some businesses are trying to invent a solution where a truck driver can automatically move a container on to the train, and here we would be able to assist them calculate whether such a technology would actually work in real life,” explains Henrik Sylvan.
RailTech DTU will focus its effort to find out who at DTU is able to help businesses and authorities with a given task, as well as coordinate between the departments, when someone is conducting research into something of relevance for the rail sector.